Garrochamba

Garrochamba was a Palta chiefdom in the Loja highlands of southern Ecuador. Its town stood at Pueblo Viejo on El Cascajo hill, overlooking the Catamayo valley.

The Palta confederation resisted the invading armies of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, who ruled from 1471 to 1493, but was incorporated into the Inca realm. After the Spanish conquest, Loja was first founded in the Garrochamba valley in 1546. In 1571 the reduction town of Catacocha replaced the indigenous settlement, and its people dispersed.